Introduction and Packaging

A few years ago, we witnessed the return of mechanical keyboards and ever since then companies have been fighting a marketing war about whose keyboard is better. The truth however is that mechanical keyboards, even in their least expensive implementations, remain fairly expensive and such an investment doesn't always makes sense to users. For you that appreciate a good keyboard but do not care about whether it has mechanical key switches or not, Corsair's Raptor K40 is an advanced gaming keyboard that uses rubber dome switches.

The Corsair Raptor K40 is marketed as a fully featured gaming keyboard, with functionality specifically targeting advanced users and gamers. Corsair has the following list of features posted in their website:

Rubber dome keys

RGB 16.8 million color backlighting with three levels of illumination

Six dedicated macro keys

36KB of onboard memory

Seven easy-access multimedia keys

Windows Lock key for uninterrupted game play

While "rubber dome keys" hardly qualifies as a feature, but the rest of the bullet points are actually good for an advanced keyboard. Regarding the rubber domes, Corsair's Raptor line is the less expensive version of their mechanical Vengeance keyboards, and subjectively there are users that prefer rubber dome keys to mechanical keys — particularly for gaming purposes.

Corsair supplies the Raptor K40 in a well-designed cardboard box, which also provides adequate protection during shipping. The main marketing theme is the backlighting of the keyboard, and rightfully so. There are plenty of keyboards with backlighting — with either mechanical key switches or rubber domes — but very few RGB backlit keyboards. It can be a very eyecatching feature, though after the initial "wow" factor, most users will likely settle for something functional rather than strobing lights. Let's have a closer look at the K40 and see how it fares.

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50 Comments

I have two different mechanical keyboards, and I've never even paid the same amount as this keyboard for them. I'd much rather get a barebones mechanical keyboard than a full featured but mushy keyboard. At the end of the day the point of a keyboard is to hit the keys, and rubber domes don't do a very good job at that.Reply

Same here, would never get or recommend something like this. With great mechanical ones going for ~$60 (Looking at Coolermaster, but not Rosewill) there's just no point in these mushy ones for me.Reply

Ain't a thing wrong with the Rosewill mechanical keyboards. I've got an RK-9100 MX Blue (blue backlighting too) and it is fantastic. I got it on sale so I paid about $85-90 for it. Money well spent. I love the clickity clack.Reply

There are MANY complaints on Newegg about the Rosewill Mechanical keyboards. They seem to have a mini-USB connection on them, and it gets difficult to keep the keyboard plugged in.

Had there only been a few of these, I might have purchased one, but there are more than a few, and I really don't like to return things, especially when some of those people have stated that because the problems set in after 30 days use, Newegg was not helpful whatsoever, and Rosewill was difficult to deal with.Reply

Yeah, no kidding. There's clearly a market for boards in between bottom of the line $12 throw-aways and the expensive mechanicals, but an $80 rubber domer isn't anywhere near that. That's more then some mechanicals! Reply

Gaming with a mech keyboard is often considered to be very awkward (I share that view). Typing with a loud and clicky keyboard always feels silly (especially if you're not some shut-in and have others in your household).

Not all microswitched keyboards click.And I doubt the profit margins on microswitched keyboards are that much larger than their rubber-domed brethren. I'd wager the situation is actually the opposite in most cases, just because materials and assembly costs are so insanely low for a rubber-dome keyboard.Reply

Right, there are people who will want something like this, but why the hell is it $80? It's entirely made of plastic, macro keys are par for the course, and there's no mention of NKey. Something like this would probably be worth $40 or maybe $50 if you really wanted the customizable backlighting.Reply